Cloudbusting moments

When I started this blog I was thinking of my life in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, Victoria, Australia. I have since come to realise that life is a series of hills of varying topographical detail; some a barely bumps, others are the hill climb of the Tour de France that the faint-heartened never approximate. I have also come to appreciate the distinct advantage of setting hills in my sights with the aim of seeing life from the other side with a raised heart-rate. My 'comfort-zone' exists to be busted, and I intend to continue venturing far away and beyond my comfort-zones for as long as I have a reason to live. From the foothills of the Dandenongs to the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, and still cloudbusting, I hope. It's what I want my kids to do, so I'd better show them a bit about how it's done, and how to push up and over the hills they'd otherwise avoid...

Friday 28 September 2007

Tupperware beckons...

I'm a Tupperware lady! Yep, like a hole in the head, I felt I needed another 'time-filler'...nah, just need a wallet-filler! So, I'm a Tupp Demonstrator and really getting into the whole affair. Last night's party was the best so far - not in sales, but in my actual demonstration of my kit. I love my SuperStart kit! I could talk forever about Tupperware, but I didn't, and I won't here.
My beautiful niece is visiting from NZ...with my sister, of course! She's prettier and prettier every time I see her and I'm loving my cuddle times with her, when Boy is occupied with something else.
Boy-Child is becoming more and more rascally every day, getting into more hijinks and compromising situations all the time. That boy loves to push the envelope. Wonder where he gets that from?
Anyway, I've just linked a YouTube video on here and I LOVE it. I'd want to, I have put some money towards it being aired tomorrow during the AFL Grand Final across this wide nation of ours. It really is a clever ad and I hope it helps sway people away from our current government during the upcoming elections. Damn them and their lies, broken promises and spin!
Respect goes to our Burmese brothers and sisters who face daily (and currently, ever-present) oppression of thought, belief and action by their militarised government. If you're in Melbourne, there's a Candlelight Vigil being held on the lawn of the Earthly Pleasures Cafe in Belgrave, on Tuesday night from 6.30pm. BYO candles and rug with snacks or dinner. Solidarity may not stop the oppression right now, but I reckon that if the people inside those borders get wind of the action people take for them, they'll mightily appreciate it and send us good vibes back.
Finally, let's not forget White Ribbon Day on the 25th November. We pay tribute to the hundreds of women and children who die in this country, alone, from family violence, along with their children. Family violence is preventable. Men can get support and help, they just need to identify that they have a slight problem with power and control. If you'd like more information, contact me and I'll look up where you can go to support this sadly-needed cause. May women and children live happily, respectfully and freely with their loving partners and fathers, or be able to co-parent in this way should marriages and relationships fail.
Goodnight, patient audience!

Wednesday 5 September 2007

The Homesong Stories

Well, I've tried customising this thing, but it doesn't want to play :( I have tried to upload photos to no avail.
How or never, here is my next entry,
I've just polished off a small yoghurt tub, the kid and the boy are in bed and we spent the evening at the fire station, taking a training course on how to use our new pagers. Ho hum.
Now, to the title of this entry. I watched this film (The Homesong Stories) on Saturday night at the Cameo Cinemas. As this venue and I have a torrid history, it takes a special film to get me there since I left in such a firestorm back in 2004. That's another story that I won't go into.
It was on as a 'Special Event', with the lady who sang on the soundtrack (for Joan Chen, who apparently can NOT sing) performing two songs before the film, and a Q&A session after the screening, with two cast members, the producer and a Chinese Immigration expert from Melbourne Uni. These additions to the film were invaluable, but not essential for viewing appreciation. The film has a life force all of its own.
It was beautiful, unrelenting, rigorous, bold, and it ripped my heart out. I cried. Yes, me. I cried. A few times.
It had so many themes, but none of them tried to speak over the other. Instead, the themes danced lightly between and with each other, so that you didn't have to work hard to play catch up, but you weren't ever allowed to disengage and let the film do the thinking for you.
Even to the end, when you have questions, you know that they just are not able to be answered adequately, because life doesn't give this story that luxury of neat endings and finished subplots. A true-to-life story that possesses you and tosses you out - how dare I try to understand what the protagonists have never been able to comprehend, since the narrative's beginnings in 1954, at the very least?
A story of migration to a very 'white' Australia, in attitude at least, where a beautiful soul facilitates the relocation of a fatherless family, only to be slapped in the head for his generosity of heart. A brother and a sister who must remain mere spectators until they are old enough to retrieve some agency in their lives...but, really, they are too young for the task ahead of them. They live in adult circles and take on adult responsibilities and still have to experience the pains of cultural alienation, school yard teasing, sexual awakening and self-esteem that children already struggle to deal with.
The beautiful soul re-enters their lives at various points in the film and reminds me that there is such pure good in the world. Even the 'usurper' can never be judged harshly by the audience, because he, too, is facing the uphill struggles that migration presents and retains the essence of humanity that causes the already tortured viewer to consider this character in only generous terms. He is flawed, and has weaknesses, as do all the other characters, and when Tom, the young boy, throws himself around Jo, the would-be step-father, I wept. I wept because the writer of the story officially allows us to feel compassion for Jo, where one has held out thus far, waiting for him to perform an unforgivable deed that will dispense with his character neatly. A deed that lets the audience move on from him and be glad he is gone. And this scene between these two characters left me wretched.
The brother and sister experience their mother in ways no child should ever have to endure. They say and do things that children ought never find they have to say and do. They sustain their mother, and in their quirky (read: often hostile, sometimes tolerant) sibling manner, they sustain each other.
I won't write about Joan Chen's character, because to do so will not only simplify what must be experienced by watching the film, but because I would love to brush my teeth and go to bed...it's after midnight!
I urge anyone who is not afraid of pushing a comfort zone here and there to watch this film. But it's not just watching. Be warned. You WILL become physiologically involved!